Brooke Nicole and the Jake Leg Band bring their full group to the Sapphire Room in Boise for the Sunday Blues Brunch on November 4. In addition, the Blues Revival, with Brooke Nicole and Zack Quintana, as well as featuring several members of Brooke Nicole and the Jake Leg Band will fill the Sapphire Room with some great blues and blues/rock at a special show on Thursday, November 1. Jake Leg of course has been one of the premier blues bands around the Treasure Valley for several years now. Fronted by Brooke Nicole’s powerful vocals and Dale “Blind Harpdog” Wilson’s bluesy harmonica, Brooke Nicole and the Jake Leg Band provide not just the blues but a danceable mix of blues, rock and stellar showmanship. Rounding out the band, Bob Solomon plays guitar, Tony “Sticks” Songer is on drums and Luke Bishop is on bass. The band does fresh interpretations of classic blues and soul tunes, contemporary songs as well as a handful of original tunes.
An offshoot of Jake Leg, the Blues Revival with Brooke Nicole and Zack Quintana has also played blues and rock. Blues Revival however spans the generations—Dale Wilson and Jake Leg’s drummer Tony Songer will be joined by Brooke Nicole, guitarist/organist Zack Quintana, and guitarists Thomas Wilson and Noble Holt from their group Suda. Robert Sutherland rounds out the band on keyboards. Even though the guitarist’s ages combined barely equal or surpass some of the band’s other member’s ages; Quintana, Wilson and Holt have wowed crowds for several years now in the Treasure Valley with their young talent, showing off exceptional skills and musicianship. Dale Wilson said to the Boise Beat, “It’s coming together really nice, it’s so much fun to play with these guys. They’re real young gun guitarists”. Brooke added, “It’s really fun to have them around. It changes the dynamics.I’m used to being the only young one around—the only young one there—but now there are kids I can call kids! I like to say, ‘oh we’re practicing with the kids tonight!’”. Dale added, “The humor changes!”.
Of course, Dale knows guitarist Thomas Wilson well—he’s his father. As Dale explained his musical history along with that of his son’s, “My mom made me play piano in 2ndgrade and I was a pianist for 3 years until I said ‘Mom, I want to play baseball!’. Them at age 12, I was given a harmonica and a John Mayall album and I loved it so I started howling on harmonicas all the time. At 16 I picked up guitar and I started doing that—I always had a guitar in my hands wherever I was at home. My best friend and I in Portland would go everyplace and play whether they wanted us or not. It evolved into a band and I played with him for it seems like a hundred years; it was a band called the Lost Leggos. I played with a band called Starborne in Portland, played with the Fat Cats in Portland, I played in the house band at the Dakota Club in Portland—at one time I was working three different bands and playing nine times a week. I had to do it—I didn’t have a choice about playing music—I had to play music.
I took a hiatus when my son Thomas was born and I got back into music when he started playing it. I started teaching him and he thought that was cool and that he liked it.When I got back on stage with him I knew I just had to be back on stage. It was so much fun! I couldn’t teach him any more so I sent him to Mike Trail from the Hoochie Coochie Men to teach him—Mike is one of the best guitar players around if not the best in the area”.
Brooke started singing at an early age too, doing karaoke nights at the tender age of six. With a deep appreciation of many genres of music, Brooke explained what let her to where she is now, saying “I won’t tell a lie—I just found Jake Leg—I found the original band and they needed a female vocalist and I caught wind of that. The old harmonica player; through him I went and crashed a practice and sang for them and they kept me. I grew up listening to the Groovin’ Oldies, not necessarily blues but Old School stuff so I had an appreciation for it already. Throughout the last couple of years members come and go and now we’re a whole new group which has sparked the name change. Also, we can do whatever we wanted. I just found the band!”.
A singer with an amazing stage presence that really knows how to work the crowd, Brooke added that “I wasn’t always good at the stage presence, so I used to awkwardly stand in front of people and sing and just walk around the stage. One of my friends who sang in a band before told me that you can literally fall to your knees and bang on the floor like a child and people will love it. You can do anything you want; and once I learned you can do anything you want and people will love it, then the fear went away. I started just stepping outside the box and now I dance on bars!”.
No strangers to the music scene at the Riverside Hotel, the Blues Revival played recently at the Sandbar while Brooke Nicole and the Jake Leg Band has played the Sapphire Room, appearing at the Winter Blues Festival presented by the Boise Blues Society as well as summer shows at the Sandbar. The Blues Revival featuring Brooke Nicole and Zack Quintana on November 1 will be an excellent chance to see and enjoy a great evening of music, dancing, food and drink. As Dale said, “Come on out and enjoy the fun with us! We have a party and we would love to play, have a party and have a good time. Unless you’re here with us, you don’t know what you’re missing. That’s what we want—just come out and have a party with us!”.
Sunday, November 4, the Sapphire Room will be kicking off the Sunday Blues Brunch series with a performance by Brooke Nicole and the Jake Leg Band from 9am-12:15pm. Dale commented that “That’s going to be fun and I hear their food is fantastic!”. That seems to be one of the keys to the dynamic of both bands—-fun. Brooke concluded, “That is the fun part. We have fun at practices and hanging out and we have our little family, but that’s really fun for me when we get to feed off the audience’s energy; and I get to go into the party and onto the dance floor and dance with everybody. It’s not as fun if nobody’s there!”. Dale summed up his views by adding, “We like each other, we all like each other. It’s fun when I can jump back and forth and trade licks with the guitar player. When I can just play with Brooke up there; and she is just fantastic—Brooke makes my life wonderful with hanging out with her and playing music with her”.
Blues Revival Featuring Brooke Nicole and Zack Quintana
Thursaday, November 1, 2018
7:30pm (doors open at 6:30pm)
Brooke Nicole and the Jake Leg Band
Blues Brunch
Sunday, November 4, 2018
9am-12:15pm
The Sapphire Room
Riverside Hotel
2900 Chinden Blvd.
Boise (Garden City), Idaho 83714
(208) 331-4930
Sapphire Room website
Tickets and info for Blues Revival show
Brooke Nicole and the Jake Leg Band Facebook Page
Photos courtesy of Dale Wilson
